Tales of Royalty
Tales of Royalty is an anthology released in 2015. The book gives background stories of some of the minor characters later to be glimpsed in , particularly of the characters that were within Zira's Palace during the Rescue of Helen McKeen. Overview The stories in Tales of Royalty take place at various times. However, all the short stories within the anthology, at some point, narrate certain events that came to pass during 2016. Zira Miranda Grover was a ruler who abode in a futuristic palace in the fields of Arizona, in the United States. Many individuals were drawn to Zira's palace due to her great wealth and power over the entire world. Some of those characters came to indulge in the might and fortune of the International Alliance, others to steal it. Still others, whether by good intention or not, were swept up in the whirlwind of plots and political dealings that surrounded the Bulging One. The stories of all such characters are recorded within Tales from Royalty. The book contains several continuity errors owing to the fact that , upon its release in 2018, contradicted a great deal of information presented in this book. As a result, was released in November of the aforementioned year. Plot Jim Newman Claire Julian Nathan Yolanda Gogan Yolanda was born at some point in the early 1980s but certainly no earlier than 1978. Her origin is unknown. While in her late twenties, Yolanda and her family were kidnapped in their home, and sold into slavery to Zira Miranda Grover. However, Yolanda was not legally a slave, since Zira had placed her under a contract that promised she could buy her freedom one day. Consequentially, she had a fair amount of freedom in the Palace. Although she detested her boss and owner, she was nonetheless close friends with some of the various patrons of the palace. Zira forced Yolanda to dress like her. The normally slender woman was made to store as much soda as possible in order to widen her body until she weighed three hundred pounds. Dan Taylor Carter Sammy Salaraga Sammy Salaraga was born in Moscow, Russia, and was the cousin of Gilbert Salaraga. He somehow managed to wind up on a station in Coahuila, located on the border of Texas and Mexico. There, Salaraga was treated as lowly vermin, though in truth he was very intelligent. He was, however, a nuisance to those who maintained the station, and eventually they could no longer put up with this parasite, and hired a bounty hunter named Malorra to hunt him down. Salaraga managed to evade Malorra for a time, though eventually, with the mercenary hot on his tail, Salaraga was forced to take refuge in a vessel which had stopped at the station. Although Salaraga was unaware at the time, the ship belonged to Zira Miranda Grover, the extremely wealthy and powerful Empress who operated out of Arizona. Zira was on one of her rare excursions out of town, accompanied by her two most prominent henchmen, Bill Kerve and Jim Newman; she had to settle an important debt on Coahuilan station. While Zira was absent attending to business, Salaraga sneaked aboard his ship, hiding in the Empress’ lavish chambers. Salaraga helped himself to some of Zira’s delicacies, though it was not long before the Empress returned, furious to find another being sitting playfully next to her feeding bowl. Enraged, the Empress attempted to shoot Sammy with the gun emplacements in her throne, though the teenager was far too quick for her, and swiftly evaded her every move. With the bowl sitting precariously on his head, Salaraga darted and lunged from rafter to rafter, until Zira’s two henchmen, Bill Kerve and Jim Newman, entered the room, arguing about something, as was the norm. The two majordomos were preoccupied with their argument to notice that Salaraga was perched right behind them; the mischievous individual dropped the bowl, filled with a brown, chocolate-like substance, directly onto the two’s heads. Covered in the brown goo, Kerve attempted to fire his sidearm at Salaraga, though the goo had interfered with the weapon’s internal workings, and all it did was fire more goo onto Newman. While her henchmen were livid, Zira had taken a liking to the spindly teenager which had stolen onto her ship, and was almost delirious with laughter at the events which Salaraga had caused. Zira managed to stop her men from killing each other, and beckoned for Salaraga to come down and speak with her. The fugitive was offered a job and a future working effectively as Zira’s court jester in her magnificent palace in Arizona. There were, however, strings attached: Salaraga had to make Zira laugh at least once a day — failure to do so would result in Newman and Kerve personally stabbing him. Confident he would be able to entertain Zira daily, Salaraga obliged, and traveled with the Empress and her men back to his palace in Arizona. Pablo Category:Books